Value of Looted Objects at Met Museum Tops $95M After New Seizures
Several ancient sculptures and vessels acquired between 1971 and 2001 were among the objects extracted from The Met's collection this June.
Following the recent seizure of several objects from The Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection in June, the total valuation of looted artifacts surrendered by the museum now stands at a whopping $95 million. In addition to hundreds of small-scale items linked to smuggling schemes, investigators have seized 120 objects worth between $20,000 and $26 million from The Met's holdings since 2017.
The Met told the New York Times that the ongoing object recovery is a mutual effort between the museum's own provenance research team, which was instituted in 2023 and recently expanded to a 12-person operation led by former Sotheby's restitution head Lucian Simmons, and investigators from the Antiquities Trafficking Unit at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.
Per the Times, investigators had subpoenaed object records for museum-acquired pieces linked to trafficking networks and dealers suspected of fudging or omitting provenance information altogether. They later presented The Met with the evidence and supporting research to facilitate restitution.
Hyperallergic has contacted the Manhattan DA's Office and The Met for comment.
Investigators explained that the museum's own curatorial records, including condition reports and other notations identifying objects that had arrived at The Met encrusted in dirt, functioned as reliable evidence of illegal digging and trafficking on more than one occasion.
With origins across Italy, Greece, Egypt, and Turkey, several ancient sculptures and vessels acquired between 1971 and 2001 were among the objects recently extracted from The Met's collection this June — some of which have already been recorded as restituted on the museum's website. The museum clarified that the aforementioned objects weren't literally seized, but instead sent from the museum's holdings to the DA's office after being flagged as improperly acquired.
As investigators continue to identify, inventory, and appraise dozens of trafficked artifacts and antiquities from the museum's collection, The Met also noted to the Times that it has independently initiated 18 object restitutions since 2017. The museum also underscored its role in brokering the restitution of over 150 Cycladic antiquities from billionaire Leonard Stern's private collection to Greece in 2022 — though the Greek government agreed to allow The Met to continue displaying the sculptures through a 25-year loan.
Simmons said in a statement that the in-house assessments for each artifact are neither straightforward nor speedy, while Matthew Bogdanos, who steers the Antiquities Trafficking Unit, told the Times that the continued seizures at the museum “spoke for themselves.”
